> From my own point of view though, *the* most interesting
> understated implication of this is that the *fourth* caste of the
> malkioni, the peasants and workers, must *also* be their own source
> of power, and yet *every* malkioni society (setting aside for these
> purposes the particular Brithini notions) is dumping them at the
> bottom of the pile, all except for the absolute purest form of
> Hrestoli idealism which exists, well, almost nowhere :D
The fourth caste of the Malkioni isn't the peasants but rather the citizens. It's only called the farmer's caste because so many citizens are farmers.
Insofar as the farmers have their own spiritual secrets, it belongs to the yeomanry rather than the peasants as the yeomanry are proper Malkioni having passed the tests and everything. The peasants are kept in a state of spiritual ignorance which means they'll have an easier time of entering solace when they die (the Loskalmi abhor this practice while the Rokari embrace it with gusto).
Other sources of power in this caste are the sailors, the merchants and the artisans.
--Peter Metcalfe
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